Chapter 2

The sound of a screaming siren woke Beth from her sleep. She saw every person in that cabin launching up and putting on gear, she followed the same routine. Beth opened her designated safe closet where her weapons and outer gear were located. She put the gear on her body, eyeing the weapons she could choose from. Beth ran a finger down the string of the bow, slinging it and the quiver onto her back, then strapping two swords across her shoulders, and finally strapping a belt of throwing knives to her waist. She was surprisingly the first finished and prepared to leave. Running to the door, she latched her helmet and mask onto her head, and launched onto the same mothball bus she rode on to get to this place. She surveyed the rest of the passengers to see if they noticed the smell, or if any of them were Ander. It was hard to tell with helmets and all, but she figured she'd know him if she saw him. After all, he had always given her a way to know. The body armor and gear concealed just about every body part you could use to identify a person, Beth couldn't even tell who were boys and who were girls. She wondered if that was purposeful.

When Ander made his appearance on the bus, he hadn't yet put on his helmet, that was until he took the seat next to Beth. She hadn't seen him since that summer, and he was different. She couldn't tell what it was about him, all she could tell is that he wasn't the same. But then again, neither was she. They rode to their destination in silence, he had no idea who she was. As far as he knew Beth was at home, probably still asleep. But she wasn't, Beth was shoulder to shoulder with him. So close she could basically hear what he was thinking, which of course was not a hard task for someone going into battle.

As soon as their feet hit the battle grounds, it was war. Literal war. However, it was not the type that comes to mind. The type of war where there is a line of soldiers willing to risk their lives for each other. It was a war where every man and woman took they're own path. Which only called for certain disaster. Beth tried to keep an eye on Ander, tried to keep him within her reach in case something were to go wrong, but she lost sight of him. She ran towards the area she had seen him when she heard him yell out in pain. She turned her head to see the tip of a sword fixed on Ander, whose helmet was lying several yards away. She wasted no time pulling two arrows and lodging them into the heart of the man. At that very moment, everything she had ever known changed. She fell to the ground, trembling as if she were the one being impaled. I just killed someone. I killed a person. Her thoughts screaming inside of her.

You never know the pain, the regret, of taking a life until you've made the mistake of stopping another's precious heartbeat yourself. Beth screamed feet planted on the ground, slashing, stabbing, and maiming more and more people. She forced herself to snap out of it when she realized Ander had kept running. Sprinting in the direction she had last seen him, the tears in her eyes made it almost impossible to find him. She stopped running, trying to gain a sense of where she was. She surveyed the area seeing only rocks and a nearly purple sky. She heard shuffling of leaves behind her, she turned to see what had made the noise, knife at the ready but was yanked down into a small opening hidden in the ground under some brush. She let out a small yelp and managed a glance at the captor who had a finger over the mouth of their helmet, she decided rather quickly to remain silent. Beth watched out of the opening as feet ran by. Her captor peaked out and tossed a small device that she didn't recognize. Killing all four pairs of feet that passed the small opening with a surprisingly large explosion. Her captor slowly stood to ensure there were no more dangerous beings outside, and waved a hand for Beth to follow. They crept out of the hole, and began to run. Weaving through trees and bushes, they were careful not to make much noise. The only noises you could hear from them were the sounds of knives and arrows ending the lives of more people. The two ran for hours, killing person after person. It had been a two hour ride to the drop off location, and another hour trek to get to the battlegrounds. Above them, the two could see the sun beginning to set.

"It's almost time for us to head back. Follow me."

Ander. Beth simply nodded, still hoping he wouldn't learn that she was in his presence. The last thing she wanted was to upset him, especially here. She would let him know, but not until battle was over. The two of them switched pace and she followed him as they slaughtered person after person until finally reaching the bus. There were six people at the bus when Ander and Beth arrived. It was only when they boarded the bus and rode away did she realize that only eight out of twelve of them survived. It was only the first battle and they had already lost four people. Beth's mind had trouble wrapping around that idea. They were supposedly the best fighters in the country and yet four of them were now dead. Although, part of her was still hoping that one of them was Melina. Once they got back to the cabins, only three people still had their masked helmets on. She was sure that no one kept their mask for the same reason she did.

Beth sulked back into the cabin to see Calvenne's bed and armory empty. She felt a rush of guilt race over her. I should've been there. She thought, I was too busy crying and mourning the loss of someone I've never met, that someone was trying to kill me, that I wasn't there to save the ones I knew. Beth started to speak, deciding she wouldn't let that happen again.

"I need you to listen to me for a minute, all of you."

"Why should we?" Melina asked with a twinge of anger.

"Not now Melina, you can be a psychotic dole some other time, but right now you need to listen."

Melina, cold with spite, raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms.  "Proceed."

"Today I was stupid, I killed someone for the first time in my life and instead of continuing on like I've been trained, I shut down. I let the guilt and terror get inside my head. Now look, I haven't killed prior to this, but today I killed forty six people. I wasn't close to anyone but Noeh when I arrived this morning," Beth swallowed remembering why she killed that first person, for Ander, "I couldn't help but think that if it was me witnessing a friend being killed rather than me murdering a stranger, I wouldn't have been able to recover. In order for us to be strong, we have to refrain from shutting down. I was guilty of it today but I can promise, it's not happening again. We are all needed out there. We need to be a team." The room was silent for a few moments, the idea of what had happened sinking in.

"If we are split like we were today we can count on no one making it out tomorrow. You're right, we need to be a team." Noeh said.

"Exactly, I was once told that if you don't have unity, you won't have success. And frankly, success is what we need right now."

"I suppose that you have a point. Maybe we should join up and go as a group tomorrow." Melina suggested with a shrug.

"Then that's what we'll do. When that alarm sounds tomorrow, it will be us on that bus together."

"Okay, but what about the other cabin?" Chaess asked meekly as he shifted his eyes from Melina to Beth. "I mean they lost three guys this morning."

"I don't know guys, that's three more to add to us. There are five of us, that's enough. We can't move in that big of a group. It's too risky." Peitre answered.

"It's only three guys, Pietre, it's not like we are adding ten more. Aren't they supposed to be our team too?" Chaess asked with a look of sympathy for Ander's cabin.

"I know its just three guys, but do we even know they'll stick with us. I know we are in on this plan. but what if they aren't?" Peitre retorted.

"Fine, then it's just us. We are in this together now." Beth turned her attention to Melina and extended a hand to her. "We need a do-over, I'm Beth."

"Melina." The girls shook hands while the boys cheered and laughed at them.

"And the beasts have been tamed." Melina and Beth glared at Noeh as he spoke.

"Don't push it." The two said in unison, and couldn't help but laugh.

*~*

A few hours after everyone had gone to sleep, Beth was still wide awake. The image of forty six people falling to the ground due to the impact of a weapon that she was handling haunted her. Beth sat in that bunk, crying for hours. She couldn't process that she had just killed real human beings. Beth's whole life had been spent hunting deer, elk, turkeys, and even targets. Never a human being, it was hard on her. She lifted her body out of the bed and trekked out to the lake. To her, that was the only thing that offered peace. She stayed for what seemed like the entire night, waiting for that guilt to stop controlling her. Tomorrow, she promised herself. You're not going to be like this, Beth. If you make it you are not going to do this again. She finally calmed herself enough to go back to the cabin where she finally got the sleep she deserved.

*~*

For the second morning in a row, the scream of that horrible siren woke Beth from her deep slumber. Just like trained soldiers, the five warriors sprung into action. They were gearing up as if they'd been awake for hours already. Together, they ran to the bus and sat in a group. When the bus had all eight passengers, it departed for uncertain death.

Beth looked to the other portion of the bus, seeing him there with his helmet off, he was alone. She wanted to go over to him, to tell him it would all be okay, that she was here experiencing it all too. But, she couldn't. He was the only person in this world she was truly afraid of confronting, she knew he would never hurt her, but she also knew he would never love her. That thought scared her more than anything. Beth stared at him, thinking back to when he did love her, when things were okay between them. Unfortunately, that same part of her mind remembered it will never be like that again. She had finally started to live with that idea, that she was going to be without him, that she needed to move on with her life. But then, there he was. As if she was supposed to only think of him.

*~*

They launched out of the bus as soon as it's tires stopped moving, as they approached the battle field, Beth saw the enemies. They weren't running. They weren't even moving. They were just standing there.

"Stop!" Beth screamed, all but one of them stopped. An explosion sent dirt and dust soaring into the odd looking sky, and among the dirt and dust was Melina's broken and limp body. In the back of her mind, Beth figured it would be Melina that wouldn't listen.

"We have to keep moving, they're coming!" Peitre yelled, Beth looked ahead to see them running now. She ran directly over the spot where Melina's, now deformed, body was blown up to ensure that they would not set off other bombs. They ran to the enemy lines, and the chaos began. Above her, she saw a small circular object flying towards them.

"Get behind something and lay down quick! Cover your heads and stay down!" Beth yelled, the three boys followed direction. She dove to her left and had just touched the ground when the object exploded. The sound was so overpowering. The ringing in her ears was intense, she remained on the ground until she regained as much of her hearing as she thought necessary. She waited until she could hear the miniature army shuffle off, when they did she fired her arrows. Once all of them were dead, she checked her surroundings.

"It's clear." The three of the boys rose from the ground looking at each other.

"Okay, you just saved our lives." Chaess muttered in awe.

"Are you surprised? Come on." The four of struggled to get on their feet, once standing they ran to where the army came from.

"Beth, where is everyone else?" Peitre shouted over the sounds of explosions in the distance.

"I didn't see them, after the explosion. We can only hope they survived." Beth especially hoped they were alive. She wouldn't know what to do otherwise.

An explosion erupted and feet shuffled from behind a large array of boulders and trees. Beth drew her bow, sending arrows flying into the flesh of the ambush members. The clanking of swords and knives filled the air, the rush of battle filling her blood. Beth slipped her bow back over her should and drew her swords slashing through the bodies of soldiers trying to kill her and her team.

"Noeh!" She shouted as a sword started its journey towards the head of her friend, Noeh pivoted his body and blocked the bow with his beautiful silver sword. Gathering to each other the four faced outward, back to back slicing, and slashing the oncoming soldiers. There was no way to count how many people there were until they were all dead. With deep breathing the four started off, once again, muttering praises to each other. The boys trailing not far behind Beth. She felt free, it was a completely different feeling than that sense of guilt she had the day prior. She felt proud of what she was doing, she felt powerful. That was a feeling she wanted more of.

Suddenly, the four stopped running. An overwhelming silence filled every last inch of the woods. The battle was over for the day. The trainers at camp used to tell them that if they heard nothing but their own breath, it was likely that the fight was over.

"Is it time?" Chaess asked peering at Beth as if she would know the answer.

"I think it is." Beth said looking at the boys who were all staring back.

"Do you think they're alive?" Chaess asked looking to the ground, fear and sadness filling his eyes.

"I don't know, honestly. But if they are, they'll be at the bus soon, it's silent, they had to have retreated for today. We should go." They started to make their way to the pick up location. While Beth was busy watching ahead for any sign of dangerous terrain or beings, the boys found the members of the other cabin. There were three, and Beth immediately identified him, he still had all gear in tact including his helmet, but she still knew. One unlatched his helmet, breathing heavily as he removed it from his head. Beth recognized him, from the camp top charts when she was fourteen. His name was Quinn, his muscles were larger than her head. Not ugly, but not attractive either, and a strange character as well. His cropped black hair made him look fierce, it was no surprise to Beth that he was here.

"All of you are still alive? Where did you come from?" Quinn asked.

"Just over that hill, she saved us from an entire army of and a number of bombs." Noeh replied, Beth made a mental note of the word bomb, she assumed that was what they called the explosion devices.  

"She?" Ander asked as he and the other boy, named Stievan,  quickly removed their helmets in surprise.

"Yeah, she saved our butts." Chaess badgered lightly nudging Beth's arm.

"How?" Ander asked, Beth drew a sigh.

"Well," Beth uttered softly, slowly sliding her helmet from her head, Ander turning to her so fast it could have snapped his neck. "All I had to do was remember. I had to remember what I was taught about fighting back home, and figured how to apply what I learned to protect myself out here." The two stared at each other. Both seemingly expressionless, yet she could tell something was burning in his mind, and she was sure he could see the same. He waited, and after a few seconds stated, eyes still fixed on her, "We need to get back to camp. We won't have this much time tomorrow. We need rest." His stare remained on Beth for a few seconds more before turning to the bus, Ander walked away. Just as he had all those years before.

"We need a leader. I mean, all the best teams had a leader, right? Obviously we are all going to stick together now. Even if that means a bigger group." Peitre called out to Ander.

Ander stopped, not turning back to look. Noeh glanced to Beth, question pooling in his eyes, and back to Pietre. "We do."

The boys bickered suggestions of Ander and Beth to be leaders, all the while the two just stood there. Ander had turned back, their eyes locking once again. It had been so long since the two had been so close. Their eyes ripped into each other, with pain so unbearable it could probably take down armies.

And without breaking that glass shattering eye contact Beth yelled, "Shut up!" All conversation ceased. "Ander is going to be the leader. He's better at this, so he will be the one to get us out of here." He looked stunned and confused, breaking the eye contact.

"We should go."  Ander called out, Beth didn't recognize the emotion in his rough voice.

Beth looked to her feet and tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

"What was that? Is that him, Beth? Is that Ander?" Noeh prodded as the others trailed out of earshot.

"Yes, it's him."

"Beth, you never even told me what actually happened."

"It was nothing, okay? We are simply members in each others' past. The only thing you should be worrying about now is staying alive. So focus on that. And remember. Don't shut down."

"That didn't look like nothing to me. Besides, he's not the one that saved us, Beth, you are. He can be labeled whatever but we are still going to look to you."

"Don't make this into more than it is, Noeh. I did what I could to get you this far, but he can do more. You'll see."

"I'm only listening because I trust you."

"If you trust me, you trust him."

Author's Note

This is the first chapter I would like reviews/critiques/comments on. Please be honest and as thorough as you see fit!